Anakin hadn't really slept since his nightmares had started. They occupied his thoughts constantly when he was awake- why should he have to deal with them any more than that? Even though it had been a few days, the effects of sleep deprivation hadn't gotten too severe yet, thanks to the Force. A few hours of intense medtiation could temporarily refuel his body. But he knew he couldn't keep doing that forever- it was like living off of energy drinks for three days. The Force could help, but it couldn't replace natural sleep.

Normally it was a struggle to stay awake the whole night, but for some reason, not tonight. Something strange was happening with the Force.

Anything he could sense nearby was full of intensity and power and violence, similar to how the Force had behaved when Windu and Palpatine battled. Maybe it was the Dark Side. Whatever it was, it was strong, and it surged and pulsed like a throbbing headache. He had never felt this great a disturbance in the Force before.

And Padmé slept peacefully, oblivious to this new chaos.

After what felt like an eternity, sunlight poked through the blinds that covered their windows, and Padmé began to stir. Anakin got up and peered through a gap in the blinds, trying to see if anything outside would explain this disturbance in the Force.

When he looked outside, he marveled that the disturbance hadn't been greater.

The Jedi Temple was smoking. It seemed damaged in several places. None of the usual activity- speeders and ships going in and out- surrounded the place.

Padmé stretched, rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Ani?" she mumbled. "What are you staring at?"

"Come here and look at this..."

Tentatively, she got up and opened the blinds a crack so she could see. Once she did, the sleepiness vanished from her eyes and she stared up at him, concerned. "Is that... what I think it is?"

"Probably, if you think it's an attack on the Jedi Temple."

She shook her head in disbelief, making her curls bounce. "Who could have done this? Who would be powerful enough, to fight all the Jedi and win?"

"I don't know. Padmé, you should have felt the Force last night. It was chaos in its purest form... I've never felt anything quite like it."

"The attack must have been severe, then." Padmé's forehead creased in concern. "Here's what we need to do. We need to go out and investigate this, see if we can tell who was behind it, and find out if it was targeted towards the Jedi only or the Republic as a whole. Meanwhile..." Padmé opened up her immense walk-in closet, filled with dozens of elaborate gowns. She was practically buried in there for a moment before emerging with two civilian outfits- one for him and one for herself. Anakin vaguely remembered her buying these once, arguing that they might come in handy one day as "disguise clothes." Padmé never needed an excuse to buy more clothes.

"I told you we would use these at some point," she said with a smile. "They're for civilians, but they're just so finely tailored, and the color palette is so pleasing... Anyway, it would be quite foolish to go around looking like a Senator and a Jedi."

After they changed and told the droids what they were doing, they jumped into Anakin's speeder and headed for the Senate building. He parked the speeder a few blocks away so they could observe without being noticed themselves.

Padmé used a pair of binoculars to study the place for a few minutes. "It's pretty empty," she said. "Which would be expected, considering there's no meeting scheduled. A couple of security guards are there."

"Does the building look damaged?"

"No, I don't think so. I suppose if the Senate was attacked, it would not be looking this normal."

"I guess our next move, then, is to see how close we can get to the Jedi Temple."

Padmé nodded tentatively. Anakin stepped on the gas and wove aggressively through the dense morning traffic. "Slow down," Padmé urged him. "You're drawing unnecessary attention to us."

"You're sounding like Obi-Wan," Anakin grumbled, but he obliged her anyway.

He found it difficult to even look at the Jedi Temple. For the longest time, that place was his only home. The only place where he could make friends and study and find safety. After a tiring or almost-deadly mission, he could always go back there and take a break from the war.

And last night, it had been one of the most dangerous places in the whole galaxy.

They were just getting close enough to the Jedi Temple that they could smell the smoke, when two clone troopers driving military-grade speeders raced up to them. The first clone waved for them to stop, while the second one drew a blaster rifle. Anakin slammed on the brakes hard, and Padmé winced.

"State your business!" the first clone barked.

Padmé did the talking, to Anakin's relief. "Sir, we observed the damage, and we just wanted to see if everything is all right."

"Everything's fine. Ma'am, if you don't have governmental permission to be here, you need to leave."

"Understood, but I do have one question. Who was behind the attack?"

"Attack?" The clone seemed disgusted by her use of the word. "The Jedi turned on the Senate! They had to be exterminated as a safety measure."

Anakin and Padmé exchanged a significant glance.

"Right," Padmé murmured. "Thank you for your time." Anakin whipped the speeder around and drove off in the opposite direction.

"So the clone army did it," he muttered in disbelief. "I didn't know they were that powerful."

"Well, we have so many of them. I always thought it was... risky... to have an army this large."

Anakin barely heard her. He could only think of his old favorite commanders and troops, like Rex and Fives and Echo. They had been so fiercely loyal, fighting tirelessly and risking their lives. Some of them had died for the Republic and the Jedi. Even though Anakin could no longer support the Jedi, he couldn't imagine those very same clones turning their backs on the people they served.

"We need to be ready to leave the planet soon," Padmé went on. "I'll attend one more Senate meeting, just to understand what's going on, but then we need to leave. We can't raise our baby in this environment."

"No," Anakin agreed. It was a shame, really. Coruscant had never been a paradise, but whenever he thought about raising their baby, he had always been excited to show the child around Coruscant once he or she was old enough. He had thought about how he would explain some of the techniques the engineers used to build the skyscrapers, and show the child all the places where he and Obi-Wan had gotten in and out of trouble.

They drove by the spaceport tower, and that reminded him of something. "We would want to leave unidentified, right?"

"Of course, why?"

"If we do- you see, every ship has a transmitter device that connects to spaceport control centers, sending them information about the ship's model and manufacturer, as well as its most recent location. It helps the government regulate who's going in and out of the system. They would be able to identify us and hunt us down with that information if someone was looking for us."

Padmé nodded and rubbed her forehead, probably battling a headache. "I didn't think of that. What safety measures can we take?"

"I could attempt to remove a ship's transmitter completely, but it's tricky business because it's deeply embedded in the other delicate computer hardware, like the hyperdrive computer system. It would be far too easy to mess up. It's like doing brain surgery. And not to mention, it's illegal."

He glanced over to see her reaction. She had her purse open, and was counting up a large sum of money. Finally she glanced up and showed him the pile of credits.

"Take these. Buy a good ship and whatever tools you need, and get that procedure done quickly. I have the feeling that every minute we stay here puts us in more and more danger."

(Author's Note: Lots of fun stuff here! Order 66, allusions to Padmé's magnificent wardrobe skills, and now Anakin gets to go on a spending spree for geeky ship stuff. Yay! Thanks for all your votes and comments so far; please keep it up! Thanks for reading!)